2o8 DAVIS — SYSTEMATIC GEOGRAPHY. [Aprils, 



Many examples are individual rather than generic. It was the 

 shoals remaining where morainic islands once arose that turned the 

 Mayflower northward from a course that might have led her south 

 of Cape Cod to New Amsterdam ; it was the greater height of the 

 mainland where the moraines of Manomet were piled upon it that 

 led the Pilgrims from their first landing at Provincetown to the quiet 

 harbor of Plymouth. The varied course of human history affords 

 innumerable examples of this kind. It would be profitable to 

 make a long list of them, to classify the items thus gathered, and 

 to select the best examples of various classes for presentation as 

 types. A geographer who was well informed regarding such types 

 would undoubtedly be more observant in his travels than many 

 travelers are to-day. He would be continually asking questions 

 and finding answers where he is now silent. 



20. Regional Geography. — It is in the prevalently unsuccessful 

 treatment of regional geography that the undeveloped condition of 

 systematic geography is made most apparent. It is well recog- 

 nized in the organic sciences that only after a general understand- 

 ing of systematic botany or systematic zoology is gained can a 

 profitable attempt be made to describe the flora or the fauna of a 

 limited district. The same principle undoubtedly obtains in geog- 

 raphy; yet nothing is more common in geographical literature than 

 an attempt to treat the geography of a certain region before any 

 thorough system of geography has been agreed upon. This error 

 is in the way of being corrected, but it is still a prevalent error. In 

 texts on physical geography, for example, it is still common to find 

 an attempt made to describe the physiographic features of the 

 several continents before any sufficient understanding has been 

 gained as to the nature of physiographic features. The year of 

 study commonly allotted to this subject in the schools is none too 

 long for a sound systematic course, and by no means long enough 

 for the addition of a regional course as well. Systematic phy- 

 siography may be vivified by the introduction of many well- 

 selected examples from various parts of the world, but there is not 

 time in a single year to present a substantial account of the con- 

 tinents or even of a single continent in addition to the systematic 

 account of the whole subject. 



21. Conclusion. — The practical conclusion of all this is that it is 

 the nature of geography as a whole, rather than the accumulation of 

 unassorted and uncorrected items, that demands the attention of 



